2.9 billion liters of beer a year and cirrhosis

According to the press, in 2013, Vietnam consumed 2.9 billion liters of beer, the beer consumption situation was stable and grew by 7.4%. Thus, on average, each person in the population of 90 million consumed 107 cans of beer. Surely that is quite a "big" in the world, right?

Not to mention a large number of Vietnamese people do not like to drink beer because they are used to drinking beer with the base, the bottom, the stone... others do not like beer because it is heavy on the stomach, only like wine from Australian, French to Italian, Chilean... or strong alcohol like Vodka, Henessy, Johnny Walker, Chivas and hundreds of other alcohol brands in the world.

2013 passed with many economic difficulties with more than 60,000 businesses no longer able to operate, high density of natural disasters with 15 storms, flood disasters with dozens of deaths.

The Saigon Business Club, the pride of Vietnamese businessmen, had a rather dull Businessmen's Day celebration with a small number of attendees, so much so that everyone had to console each other: we should be happy that we are still sitting here. The numbers and images mentioned above do not seem to match the amount of beer consumed by Vietnamese people, with the beer consumption situation "stable and growing 7.4%".

Along with the increasing number of motorbikes, the amount of alcohol consumed has led to our number of traumatic brain injury cases always being at the top of the world.

Every doctor we have met in the world, from any country, is amazed at the number of traumatic brain injuries that Vietnamese doctors have to deal with. Recently, the figures on cervical spine injuries have also put Vietnamese doctors at the top of the world in the number of treatments and surgeries. There have been several studies that show a correlation between alcohol consumption and the number of traffic accidents that lead to traumatic brain injuries and cervical spine injuries.

However, even if the conclusion is that there is a correlation, it is still not accurate enough, because the majority of traffic accidents are related to alcohol but are not counted in those studies, including cases where the person causing the accident is drunk or the behavior of the drunk person causes the accident to occur between people who have not consumed alcohol before.

We launched a program to fight viral hepatitis with the goal of reducing the rate of cirrhosis and liver cancer, but we forgot a major cause of cirrhosis and a series of other health problems: beer and alcohol.

As a surgeon, despite my best efforts, many times I had to sadly put down my knife, helplessly watching the patient writhe in pain just because the patient had severe liver failure, was unable to clot blood, was no longer able to eliminate anesthesia, or would not be able to heal the surgical wound… Sadly, all the cases I encountered had the same cause: beer and alcohol.

There are no statistics showing how many Vietnamese families are broken up because of alcohol. There are also no statistics showing how many cases of domestic violence are related to alcohol, how many fights, stabbings, and even shootings are caused by alcohol. A large number of poor people in society are addicted to alcohol, are victims and perpetrators of illiteracy, poverty, and backwardness...

I don't know how much the breweries contribute to the national treasury, I don't know if it can compensate for the damage that society has to bear.

No one has calculated how much money we have to spend each year to treat accidents caused by alcohol, how much money to treat people with cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcohol, alcohol-induced psychosis, etc. No one has calculated the extent of damage caused by other negative effects of alcohol that cannot be calculated in money.

The immediate joy that alcohol brings, the ability to temporarily forget reality, the ability to turn timid people into heroes… blinds us, makes us forget the thousands of reasons not to drink. And we just keep going… going…

According to suckhoevadoisong